Vernon man who believed he was ‘prophet from God’ found not criminally responsible for killing 79-year-old

A 64-year-old Vernon man who killed a 79-year-old who discovered him at his rural North Okanagan property did so because he believed he was a prophet from God and he was under attack from a group called the “Devil’s Army.”

Today, June 1, BC Supreme Court Justice Jan Brongers found Peter Michael Visintainer not criminally responsible on account of a mental disorder after he admitted to killing 79-year-old Wolf-Ingo Rudolf Beyer.

“When Mr. Visintainer elbowed, stabbed, struck, and dragged Mr. Beyer, he did not have the capacity to rationally decide whether these actions were morally justifiable or not,” Justice Brongers told the court. “Visintainer was suffering from a mental disorder that rendered him incapable of knowing that what he did to Mr. Beyer was wrong.”

Visintainer was charged with first-degree murder, and the Justice’s decision comes after a trial that called 25 witnesses over three weeks.

The Justice found, and Visintainer admitted to, killing Beyer when the 79-year-old returned to his rural property and discovered Visintainer there.

Visintainer had elbowed the 79-year-old in the face and believed he was unconscious. He’d also repeatedly stabbed Beyer with a knife and a hatchet. He’d then tied his body to the back of Beyer’s trunk and driven off.

“When Wolf was murdered, my whole world was destroyed,” Beyer’s partner of 30 years told the court through a victim impact statement. “It is a very hard thing to lose all your dreams and plans in your 70s.”

The court heard that even at 79 years old, Beyer was still helping out ranches with cattle and going hunting. “Wolf was so good to everybody,” she said.

Beyer’s son, Dave, also addressed the court and, choking back tears, read a victim impact statement on behalf of himself and his brother, Grant.

“The loss of our father, particularly given the random nature and extreme violence involved in his death has been overall very disturbing,” he said. “The degree of violence and cruelty in the manner of his murder… has left us imagining the pain and fear that may have been in his last moments. This leaves us with profound anguish for him and sadness over the arbitrary nature of his death.”

The case dates back to May 2022, when, under strong delusions that he was a prophet from God, Visintainer left the Vernon motel room where he lived and, after walking long distances and hitchhiking, ended up at Beyer’s property on Six Mile Creek Road, north of Westside Road.

At the time, the 64-year-old thought that he was a prophet of God under attack by the devil, who was trying to possess him. He was scared of the “Devil’s Army,” which he believed was a group of evildoers spawned by an alien race who look like ordinary people but could also change shape.

“Mr. Visintainer was especially concerned that his hotel neighbours and the local Hell’s Angels were part of this devil’s army and wanted to kill him,” Justice Brongers said.

The Justice said when Visintainer left home on the day of the killing, he did not have a specific plan as to where he would go, “confident that God would guide him.”

Visintainer went to Six Mile Creek area because he’d once had an RV nearby.

He’d unnerved the person that picked him up hitchhiking, and asked to be dropped off in the Six Mile Creek area.

Walking past Beyer’s property, he saw an RV which he believed belonged to former business partner Brian Faulkner, who he believed was an evil person.

Beyer wasn’t home, and the 64-year-old entered a mobile home on the property and discovered numerous bottles and surmised that the property was a place of evil used by the Hell’s Angels for making meth.

He spent a while at the property but headed to a creek to camp before changing his mind and returning to Beyer’s property.

The two men had never met, but sometime later that day, Beyer returned to the property. 

Visintainer walked out of the mobile home and asked Beyer, “Where is Brian Faulkner?” 

Beyer replied, “In prison,” and Visintainer charged at him.

Visintainer had testified that Beyer’s face changed into a gremlin with razor-sharp teeth and then looked like the Joker from the Batman comics.

An autopsy found that Beyer had suffered multiple injuries, had been stabbed in the chest, and had been hit on the head with the hatchet. 

“It is not clear whether Mr. Beyer died before or after Visintainer started to drive the truck while Mr. Beyer was tied to it and on the ground,” the Justice said.

After a short distance, Visintainer put Beyer’s body in a ditch and threw some black mats on top of it.

As he did this, another truck arrived on the rural road, and its driver assumed Visintainer was dumping garbage.

However, Visintainer drove into the truck and drove off. The driver called the police, reporting a hit and run. Shortly afterwards, Beyer’s body was discovered, and police began searching for Beyer’s stolen truck.

Visintainer drove aimlessly throughout the night in the Vernon and Kelowna area and was captured numerous times on CCTV. The following day, he was arrested after stopping in the parking lot of Walmart in Vernon.

The court heard how the 64-year-old had once been married and had four children. He spent a year in the Canadian military and studied engineering.

However, he suffered from schizophrenia and had suffered delusions in the mid 90s.

At age 61-year-old he was living alone in a Vernon motel and washing dishes at Kelly O’Bryan’s restaurant in Vernon.

Prior to the killing, police had been called about Visintainer’s strange behaviour, and those he worked with had noticed a change in him.

The court heard Visintainer had come off his medication due to the side effects and hadn’t been sleeping. 

In ruling Visintainer was not criminally responsible, the Justice pointed to a lengthy psychiatric evaluation that found the 64-year-old had schizoaffective disorder-manic type.

The Justice also pointed to statements Visintainer made to the police following his arrest.

“The recordings are replete with proclamations, utterances and pronouncements by Mr. Visintainer that can only be described as bizarre, illogical, and preposterous,” the Justice said. “However, they are spoken with such sincerity and confidence so as to appear that Mr. Visintainer genuinely believed what he was saying at the time.”

He believed he had a GPS tracking device inserted in his body and had once sold his soul to the devil for $78,000.

The Justice said Visintainer’s reasoning ability was overwhelmed by his paranoid delusions, and he did not know the wrongfulness of killing Beyer.

Visintainer will now be transferred to a psychiatric unit, and his file will be passed to the BC Review Board.

He will remain in custody until he can prove he is mentally well enough to be released, which in some circumstances never happens.